Lehigh Valley veterans swap stories during war memorials visit

About 50 local veterans trekked to the National Mall this weekend as part of the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project's trip. Sunday's visit was the seventh time the group has helped local vets visit the war memorials.

About 50 local veterans trekked to the National Mall this weekend as part of the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project's trip. Sunday's visit was the seventh time the group has helped local vets visit the war memorials.

See the D.C. war memorials through the eyes of Lehigh Valley World War II veterans.

— It's the Korean War Veterans Memorial that has Mel Schissler mesmerized.

Schissler, who flew in B-17s over Europe during World War II, had toured the war memorials along the National Mall two or three times before his visit last weekend with the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project.

But the 90-year-old's eyes lit up when he looked at the squad of servicemen, designed to appear as if they're advancing through Korean rice paddies. The 7-foot-tall figures seem so real, he said before narrating some of the things those young men might have faced over the next hill.

"You can go to the Lincoln Memorial or you can go to the Washington Monument, but it's only a building," Schissler said as he gazed at the sculptures. "This, you see men doing their job in wartime."

The former ball turret gunner then gestured to the sky.

"I was up there, and I respect these guys more than what I was doing up there," he added.

Schissler, who lives in Franconia Township, Montgomery County, was among more than 50 veterans on the donation-sponsored day trip.

The Lehigh Valley visitors — most clad in hats or shirts with insignia for their military branch and unit — ranged from World War II survivors like Schissler and Joe Drogo, a 91-year-old who was serving as a medic when he landed on Omaha Beach, to Vietnam veterans in their 60s.

Mike Sewards, the group's chairman and founder, said it was their seventh trip to the D.C. memorials. As in past years, they loaded onto a charter bus early in the morning and were greeted with a dinner at the Sands casino in Bethlehem when they returned in the evening.

Last year, their visit fell during the federal government shutdown. That standoff over a spending plan meant barricades blocking entrance to some memorials, requiring a special request to park rangers before the group could visit.

It was a different atmosphere last weekend, with hundreds of visitors posing for pictures and, at times, greeting members from the Lehigh Valley group.

For Calvin Summers, an Army truck driver in both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II, visits to the war memorials have offered signs that the time he and others spent in combat is appreciated.

He used to feel that veterans were "just forgotten people." But the 89-year-old from Reading says his interactions with tourists and other veterans there bring him a sense of comfort and familiarity.

"I feel like sort of a kinship, you know? Like I'm back at a place among friends," Summers said.

Vice Adm. Robin Braun, chief of the Navy Reserve, greeted the group at the World War II Memorial, where veteran after veteran told her about their own experiences.

Braun said the men share a common bond in their wartime experiences. They may not talk about those experiences often, but seeing the memorial "makes them proud and it makes them want to tell their story."